In 1908 Paris, loyal British valet Charles Laughton (as Marmaduke "Bill" Ruggles) is horrified to learn he's been lost in a poker game. While visions of wild Native American Indians occupy his thoughts, Mr. Laughton services are transferred to socially self-conscious Mary Boland and her crass husband Charlie Ruggles (as Effie and Egbert Floud). After using him to dress Mr. Ruggles in a proper suit, the millionaire couple take Laughton to their mansion in the small western town of Red Gap, Washington. There, due to a misunderstanding, Laughton is mistaken for a noble British colonel. He finds romance with widow ZaSu Pitts (as Prunella Judson) and catches the spirit of America...Laughton is wonderful in this (the best) version of Harry Leon Wilson's story. Paramount's "Ruggles of Red Gap" very likely asserted Laughton was more aligned with Hollywood for the bulk of his acting career. It was a wise film choice. Laughton's performance was considered among the year's best, alongside other 1935 roles. While not honored, Ms. Boland and Mr. Ruggles (unrelated to the titular character) are worthy of "supporting" awards...Director Leo McCarey and the great cast very effectively contrast the American and British cultures. It is a distinctly American film, but you do see some pointed jabs at US culture as well as the obvious class-restrictive society mandated by the UK. For example, consider the moment when Laughton meets his American counterparts; happy Black and Asian servants do not have the same opportunity as Laughton, yet. The brief scene makes a startling point. Much less subtle, but especially memorable is Laughton's reciting of President Abraham Lincoln "Gettysburg Address" (1863). It's not a perfect speech, film or country; nevertheless, there is much to celebrate in near-perfection.********* Ruggles of Red Gap (2/19/35) Leo McCarey ~ Charles Laughton, Mary Boland, Charlie Ruggles, ZaSu Pitts

Some pretty good reviews have been turned in so far. I recommend "All's Right With the World" (telegonus from brighton, ma; 16 August 2002). Also, jayjerry regards it as "My All-Time Favorite" (jayjerry from Burbank, CA; 2 February 2007).In "Making Your Way In A New World" (bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York; 6 October 2006) we get good background on Charles Laughton's personal interest in the story. In "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" (lugonian from Kissimmee, Florida; 18 December 2010) we are provided the film history of the story.In "What did Lincoln say at Gettysburg, anyway?" (theowinthrop from United States; 20 May 2006) we get criticism of the pacing of some scenes, along with the gags that don't entirely work."Ruggles at Red Gap" starts out as a (not laugh-out loud) comedy about manners. As the story moves from Paris to the Western US, it acquires great depth by way of Laughton's extraordinary reciting of Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" to a saloon filled with cowboys who can't recall a word of it.As freedom and liberation emerge as new themes, love also arrives. Laughton's Ruggles (convincing as a heterosexual) finds a widow (Zasu Pitts as Mrs. Judson) with whom a restaurant adventure is undertaken. Among the first patrons of this restaurant is his former Parisien employer (Roland Young as the Earl of Burnstead) who has found a very charming Washington socialite (Leila Hyams as Nell Kenner).Acquiring richness until the satisfying finale, "Ruggles at Red Gap" should be regarded as among the best films about Americana. Three scenes are standouts: Laughton's exceptional Gettysburgh recitation, Roland Young's musical flirting scene with Leila Hyams and the restaurant sequence climaxed by a rousing finish.Laughton's transformation from a dour and proper man servant to a more popular figure comes with the help of two instigators; i.e., wealthy ranchers Egbert (Charles Ruggels; yes that's confusing) and Effie Floud (Mary Boland). Egbert is a particularly corrupting influence on Ruggles by introducing him to drink and repeatedly insisting that they both share the same class.Each cast member is superb. Leo McCarey is very interesting visually. Note how in this cinematic period how few closeups there are; how often there seems to be a bit much space above characters heads and how far away a group stands from the viewer's perspective, as if seen from a stage.In real life in Washington State (around 1908) there probably would be more than one enemy for Ruggles to contend with; for being out of place, foppish, proper, literary and theatrical. As with many of the other films from the 1930s, common people are depicted idealistically.Somehow McCarey made this beautiful, rich and rewarding commentary about liberty, finding love and gaining acceptance before he appeared as a friendly witness to the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) witch hunt. This is not explained by "Ruggles."

This isn't a great movie, but it is certainly an enjoyable one. An English gentleman's gentleman is taken to America when he's won in a game of cards by a wealthy American's husband. (No, that doesn't make any sense. A gentleman's gentleman isn't an indentured servant. You just have to buy the premise.) At first he is like a fish out of water. Eventually, he finds advantages and pleasure in what are touted as American virtues: all men are created equal, etc. Nothing profound, certainly, but the cast is uniformly good, as are their performances. Some, like Mary Boland's or Zsa Zu Pitt's, are yet another iteration of what they always played. Some, like Charlie Ruggles', are interesting exaggerations. The only performance I found strange was Charles Laughton's. He had a very strange way of showing what I suppose was meant to be seen as bewilderment.A pleasant way to spend 90 minutes.

British-born but American-naturalized comedian Bob Hope had first followed his classic Western comedy THE PALEFACE (1948) with FANCY PANTS (1950) where he played a stuffy English butler out West; it was pure coincidence, therefore, that I happened to come across the remake of the former – the Don Knotts vehicle THE SHAKIEST GUN IN THE WEST (1968) – and the original of the latter (which is the film under review) for this year's Christmas season.RUGGLES OF RED GAP was an oft-filmed novel and this version (perhaps the best-known and undoubtedly the best) was already the third screen treatment. Charles Laughton was clearly on a roll in the early 1930s, with three superlative performances in 1935 alone – the others being his celebrated (and Oscar-nominated) Captain Bligh in MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY and Javert in LES MISERABLES – but I'd venture to say that his Marmaduke Ruggles is the one that ought to have been singled out for the highest praise. His social standing as a butler doesn't allow him to appear flustered by all the lunacy going on around him and, as a result, his subtle reactions are a sheer joy to behold and a clear testament to the actor's capabilities and emotional range. In fact, the film's first 20 minutes or so (set in Paris, France) are a hilarious succession of events that seriously test the age-old values of the unflappable Ruggles (culminating in a memorable drinking sequence that brought tears to my eyes from laughter).It is ironic that a film which headlines a character named Ruggles should have an actor named Ruggles in a main role but Charlie Ruggles manages to defeat that challenge and emerge almost as shiny as Laughton himself; he plays a hen-pecked American tourist (as usual, he's married to bossy Mary Boland who wins Ruggles in a bet with his reckless master Roland Young) and proceeds to take him to his hometown of Red Gap, Washington, U.S.A. Charlie's persistence in treating Ruggles as his equal and call him "Colonel" gives his compatriots the mistaken notion that Laughton was a high-ranking British officer and, consequently, they start regarding him as a local celebrity. However, his ruse slowly starts to unravel when he meets up with klutzy cook Zasu Pitts and starts giving her pointers on spicing up her meat sauce… Although the film eventually loses some of that initial frenzied momentum, it is never less than enjoyable and, occasionally, even moving: at one point, Laughton lets his real cultured self show through in front of his feather-brained American bar-room cronies when murmuring Abraham Lincoln's famous address at Gettysburg – according to Edward Dmytryk (who worked as an editor on the picture), ultra-sensitive Laughton got so emotional in speaking those lines (and which subsequently became favorites of his) that it took director Leo McCarey one-and-a-half days to shoot the scene! Also, according to Laughton's wife Elsa Lanchester, the subject was clearly close to his heart as it was he who brought to Paramount's attention and picked McCarey to direct the film, whose sole Oscar nod would be for the Best Picture of the Year (although Laughton did eventually win the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Actor).P.S. This was yet another case of DivX foul-up for me as the copy I initially got kept pixelating and freezing before the DVD conversion conveniently resolved the issues satisfactorily.